The present invention relates to point-of-sale terminals, and more particularly to an improved point-of-sale terminal for use in laundry and dry cleaning establishments. When a customer brings items to be laundered or cleaned to the counter operator of a laundry or dry cleaning establishment, it is common practice for the operator to prepare and give to the customer a ticket listing the items received. It is further common to indicate on the ticket the services to be performed on each item and the price to be charged, which is dependent on the number and types of items, and the services to be performed on each item.
Traditionally the ticket is handwritten by the operator. However, writing tickets by hand has the problem in that errors may occur because of memory lapses as to established base prices and upcharges for various items and services or errors in operator judgment as to item characteristics relevant to base price or upcharge determination. In a busy establishment, the pressure of time may promote even more errors. Depending on the nature of the error, the customer or store owner may be dissatisfied.
Writing tickets by hand offers the further disadvantage that the ticket-writing activity, which can take a minute or more, occupies the time of two people--the operator and the customer--from start to finish.
In addition, with handwritten tickets there can be arithmetic errors in summing the items and applying discounts, coupons, taxes, and the like. Further difficulties arise if the handwriting on the ticket is not legible.
In the face of the many drawbacks of handwritten tickets, examples of which are discussed above, in recent years it has become commonplace to attempt to use computer technology in point-of-sale applications.
By incorporating a computer in a point-of-sale terminal, arithmetic functions may be provided for calculating the total of the item prices and taxes after the operator has entered the necessary information, and a ticket may be automatically printed under the control of the computer. The ticket printed by such a terminal is not subject to variable legibility as is the handwritten ticket.
Prior art computerized point-of-sale terminals, while providing numerous advantages over handwritten tickets, do not, however, remedy all of the problems associated with handwritten tickets.
For example, as mentioned above, the customer who leaves items to be laundered or dry cleaned typically has been given a ticket in exchange for the items. Where the ticket was printed under computer control rather than handwritten, information pertaining to the incoming order has been entered into the computer. A number on the ticket has been read and stored in the memory of the computer, typically along with information about the date, time, operator, and items and descriptors. When the customer returns to the laundry or dry cleaning establishment to pick up the laundered or dry cleaned items, he or she is normally required to present a ticket to permit the operator to locate the customer's items and verify that the customer is entitled to receive such items. Generally, if the customer does not have the ticket, it becomes very difficult for an ordinary laundry or dry cleaning establishment to locate the customer's laundered or dry cleaned items based on the customer's oral description of such items, assuming that the operator is convinced that the ticketless customer is entitled to the items being claimed. In many laundry or dry cleaning establishments the laundered or cleaned items are stored on a mechanized moveable rack with numbered storage locations. To retrieve an item being claimed by a customer, the operator must read a number from the ticket presented by that customer and look for that number on the moveable rack. In some instances retrieval of items on the rack, based on the number on the ticket, is automated.
In dry cleaning or laundry establishments, as in many other businesses, it is desirable to be able to account for all outstanding tickets. As each ticket is returned, the returned ticket must be reconciled against a record of outstanding tickets. In an establishment with a computerized point-of-sale terminal, such reconciliation of outstanding tickets is easily accomplished within the terminal using the information typed into the terminal when a ticket is issued and when a ticket is returned.
But relying on the human operator to read a ticket number and to enter it manually into the point-of-sale terminal is costly in terms of the time required for each such entry. Furthermore, there is the possibility of typographical error as the operator enters the number. Such error, if not corrected at the time of entry, may result in inaccuracies in the transactions processed by the point-of-sale terminal.
To facilitate the accounting of outstanding tickets, bar codes have heretofore been used on the tickets. Such bar codes are scanned by an operator when tickets are presented typically by using a handheld bar code reader. Each ticket bears a different bar code, printed beforehand either at the time the ticket form is manufactured or at the time the ticket is issued.
Reading of a ticket bar code at the time of the incoming order, and again at the time the outgoing items are returned to the customer, permits enhancement of the normal functions of the point-of-sale terminal. As mentioned above, it is desirable to keep inventory information about the outstanding tickets. When a ticket is issued to a customer, the ticket represents items that are considered to be in inventory. Later, when the ticket is presented by the customer and items are returned to the customer, the ticket records the items that leave the inventory. Thus, the use of bar codes makes the inventory updating a straightforward matter.
When the ticket is presented by the customer, the terminal is able to read the bar code and retrieve from memory the information necessary to handle the cash transaction with the customer. This information may, for example, include the total price that was printed on the ticket at the time it was issued.
Similarly, cashing out the cash drawer of the terminal at the end of the day is more easily performed if the point-of-sale terminal has kept track, by number, of the tickets which have been returned. As mentioned above, already stored in memory prior to the return of the ticket was information about the ticket, including the total cash amount for the ticket.
The handheld bar code reader is commonly available in one of two types. One type requires the operator to "swipe" the bar code by moving the reader or wand at near-constant velocity over the bar code from one end to the other. Another type of handheld bar code reader is used by placing the reader or wand over the bar cod and keeping it stationary in that position until the scanning of the bar code is complete. Such a reader or wand contains a mirror controlled by a servomechanism to sweep a beam of light across the entire bar code so that light reflected from the bar code may be sensed by an appropriately positioned light detector, which reads the bar code.
Each of these commonly used handheld bar code readers has its respective drawbacks. The hand swept type of bar code reader must be moved at nearly constant velocity across the entire bar code, a technique many operators have difficulty performing consistently. The stationary type of handheld bar code reader tends to be bulky, expensive, and less sturdy, due to the presence of a servomechanism and mirror in such devices.
Any handheld bar code reader has a drawback in that it has an attached cord which may be damaged or become tangled with garments or other objects, and the reader itself may be dropped and damaged.
Another known bar code reader technology is the under-the-counter bar code scanner recently being used in supermarkets and other stores. Such a scanner typically has a light source and servomechanism controlled mirrors located beneath a counter-level window for sweeping a light beam across a bar code on an item of merchandise being moved across the window. Appropriately positioned light detectors sense the light reflected from the bar code and thereby read the bar code. But some such readers require the operator to move the item bearing the bar code across the window at a nearly constant velocity, an operation which is difficult to perform consistently.
The under-the-counter type bar code scanner is unsuitable for use in a point-of-sale terminal for laundry or dry cleaning establishments because such a scanner has sophisticated features designed for reading bar codes on objects of various shapes and orientations. These features, which are provided at considerable additional cost, are not needed for reading a bar code on a laundry or dry cleaning ticket. Such readers also are bulky.
Where a bar code reader is mounted within a point-of-sale terminal, the problem of moving the ticket at rear constant velocity past the bar code reader may be alleviated by providing a motor driven ticket transport mechanism with the bar code reader. But such a separate transport mechanism tends to increase the cost and size of the point-of-sale terminal, since it is present in addition to all the other components of the terminal.
Accordingly, a need clearly exists for a point-of-sale terminal for use in laundry and dry cleaning establishments in which a stationary bar code reader is provided for reading bar codes on tickets without the need for the operator to move either the reader or the ticket at nearly constant velocity.
Additionally, a need clearly exists for a point-of-sale terminal for use in laundry or dry clearing establishments in which a stationary bar code reader is provided within the terminal to read bar codes printed on tickets without the need for providing a separate ticket transport mechanism for the bar code reader.